ub2011capsfandomcom-20200214-history
Talk:The Measure of All Things/@comment-4441497-20110916154705
In most, if not all, areas of study and life, the concept of accuracy has importance. In all sciences, experiments are conducted to prove or disprove a hypothesis. To those scientists conducting these experiments, multiple tests must be done to obtain ‘accurate’ and reliable results. For accountants, they must audit financial records of companies and depending on how ‘accurate’ they do their job, it can either hurt or aid the companies’ reputation. Doctors have to diagnose patients based on one visit and maybe some blood work. The accuracy in their conclusions is crucial especially when diagnosing a patient with a terminal illness. For these cases and many others that have not been mentioned, questions arise like, how accurate is accurate enough? and does time matter? It is hard to determine whether 0.05 units away or 0.005 units away is enough to consider a result accurate. For some 0.05 units away is perfectly fine but for others 0.005 is much better. It seems to me that accuracy is based on the individual or a group. For Méchain, accuracy was everything. He was not concerned on making a lasting impact on the citizens of France or Spain or even the scientific community. He accepted his role on the meter expedition and he would maintain his usual calculating techniques. It seemed like Méchain believed accuracy was achieved by conducting the measurements at one location more than once. This repetition, Méchain believed, would eliminate any error due to humans or the device itself. Méchain’s approach was quite good. Just like in other scientific experiments multiple data is taken to make sure the results given were not just a one time event. Repetition makes any result more accurate but in an imperfect and ever changing world nothing can ever be completely accurate. There will always be errors to deal with and knowing this, the individual must set an acceptable percentage of error. What happens when time becomes an issue? Delambre was faced with this dilemma after being detained and held back from conducting his measurements. His approach to measuring was not like that of Méchain. He was a one shot kind of guy. With a time restraint placed on him, one must question the accuracy of his results. Does being rushed through an experiment or being rushed to make a conclusion affect accuracy? Of course. Even more error is likely to occur if a deadline, especially an unrealistic one, is set. But the time restraint can also cause physical and emotional affects on the individual which are another cause of error. When it comes to me, I try for time to never be a factor because I know poor work and wrong conclusions can be formed. Being a mathematics major I do tons of problems a day and to obtain the right answer, which is already known, I need to try to be 100% accurate in each step. One little error or mistake, such as an inverted numbers or wrong sign, will not give me the right answer. Also with my job, there is no room for error. As a pharmacy technician it is important to also be as accurate as possible in quantities, day supplies, drug dispensing and so on because if not someone’s life can be at risk. Seeing as I am human and do commit errors, triple checking is crucial in my job to catch any mistakes that may have been made. As much as I want to be 100% accurate in everything I do for my major and job, it is not possible. Humans commit errors so everything done or created by humans is very likely inaccurate. This is just something that people need to understand and is up to them whether they are willing to accept it or not.